11,000 seats for underprivileged sections vacant in Delhi private schools

At least 11,000 nursery seats meant for economically weaker section/disadvantaged (EWS/DG) category are lying vacant in private schools this year.

At least 11,000 nursery seats meant for economically weaker section/disadvantaged (EWS/DG) category are lying vacant in private schools this year.

Activists say that such vacancies even after nine months of the admission process could be due to the poor implementation and monitoring of the online admission process.

For the first time this year, the government introduced an online system of application for the EWS/DG category students. The private unaided schools, which are built on government land reserve 25% seats for children whose parent’s income is less than R1 lakh per annum.

In an affidavit filed by the government at the Delhi High Court, out of the 28,135 seats in 1,159 schools, more than 19,000 seats have been filled. The affidavit was submitted by the government for a case filed by a social jurist on behalf of 80 students who were not able to get admissions.

Last year, when the admission process was offline, a total of 31,571 students had got admission at the entry-level class.

“The online system is not wrong but there has been some problem with its implementation,” said Khagesh Jha, an advocate.

He said that schools were not marked according to the pin code of the area and some colony names were missing from the list.

“Areas such as Dwarka in the south-west and Patparganj in east Delhi were marked within a 1 km area in the online system so problems had to arise. They replicated the Rajasthan model but failed to customise it as per Delhi’s need. It is also surprising that this year the total number of seats in the category has been reduced and the government is not talking about it,” said Jha.

Rajasthan has one entry level admission and they only consider the 1 km neighbourhood distance. However, in Delhi, entry level admission takes place in pre-school, nursery and KG with varying neighbourhood distances for admission in each of the classes.

The government said that online system is not over yet but they will fill all the seats.

“Admission process is not over yet. The deputy district education (DDE) officers have inspected 150 schools, the report of which will be filed within a day or two. Once we get the report with details of seats then the third round of admission will start,” said Saumya Gupta, director, directorate of education.